1991 Dodge W150, Green Machine

Hey guys, I'm George, from Chicago, Illinois. I picked up this '91 W150 (318 Auto), in late May.

It's a rust free truck from Montgomery County Alabama, and was used as a county search & rescue vehicle. (Based on the faded stickers)

Runs, drives, and the 4wd works. Definitely needs some front end work, and interior stuff, but the biggest thing is, it is 100 percent rust free, top and bottom. Here in Illinois that's huge. Most 5 year old trucks are starting to rust.

Plans are to get it mechanically up to par, then start on the cosmetics and interior stuff. It'll just be a summer cruise around and do truck stuff truck. No winters for this guy ever again.

So on with the story.

In May, I was in the shower, looking at Facebook marketplace (yes, in the shower sue me) and saw this guy for sale. Ad said it was clean and needed TLC. Seller was in Wenona Illinois about an hour and a half away, not bad right?

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Well, coincidentally my daughter's 1st birthday party was that day, so talked to the seller and explained I could come out, but It wouldn't be until late at night, because the party was the number one priority.

He agreed, party was a blast, then I hopped in my VW and headed west on I-80. Got to the seller's house at just after 8:30, and inspected the truck. In the dark, lol. Looked good, drove like absolute ass, but it was all there. Heater core was shot and the steam facial I recieved was pleasant. 

The seller, who was an absolutely stand up dude, said there was a guy down the street waiting at the bar who wanted to buy the truck, but since I called first I had right of refusal. Now, we hear that all the time, but the bar guy actually contacted me on Facebook and confirmed the story. Cool!

$1700 fresh American dollars later I had a title, keys, and a truck. Is that a good deal? I dont know, nor did I care, I needed a project after selling everything else when baby came. Anyways, I then went home, and got my friend Dan, to come with me a week later to get the truck.

Fast forward, we show up on a beautiful Sunday morning, truck was sitting right where I left it. We bypassed the heater core, and drove into town to get fuel. Also found a bird's nest on the rear axle lol. The truck had sat for quite sometime, and was absolutely filthy, but ran "okay". Once the new 93 Octane got flowing, it ran better and better.

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We took Illinois 17 across the heart of the state to avoid interstate highways, down to Illinois 1 (Dixie Highway) then north to IL 394, to the Bishop Ford Freeway to my house.

The trip went well other then we noticed some fuel dripping from a rotted hose underneath. Decided to stop in Momence Ill. For a blizzard from dairy queen after getting caught in a 10 minute there and bam it's gone rainstorm. Oh, there are no wipers, lol. Head out the window cruising along, it was time for a break. Rest of the trip was uneventful, and even got some nice comments on the truck, via the CB radio, lol.

Needed a Transfer case shift knob and a passenger mirror. Found a 92 Ramcharger that donated both. This and the 87 were crusty messes. Oh and the 92 had a bunch of bullet holes! 

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Part 2, when we got it home, next!

Congrats!  I've always loved old Dodge 4x4 trucks. 

That's definitely not a color you see every day.

What are your plans for it?

I'm very local, have and still own more than a few '72-93 Dodges, and $1700 for a rust free and driving shortbed W series is an absolute steal.  

I have a little side business selling parts off these, and have some insights-

The grill is going to be really difficult to find uncracked if you want OEM, but aftermarket chrome ones without the "Dodge" lettering are cheap on eBay.
 

The wipers are likely to have bad bushings throughout the linkage.   Buy a pack of the replacements, or two.

Keep a real close eye on that area that is primered on the roof; these trucks can rust out at the drip rail even if the rest of the vehicle is rock solid. 

The oil pressure sending units are known stop working on these, and then fail, resulting in a catastrophic oil leak.   I lost a real good running 318 while driving my Texas Ramcharger in a snowstorm this way.

The rest of the vehicle is mechanically simple and should be dead nuts reliable with a TBI 318.


 

I would buy that truck in a heartbeat for $1700.  Great score!

Ditto on the drip rail rust.  The windshield gaskets can shrink and let rust start under them as well.

Thanks fellas. 

The roof was sanded down by me to see what was going on, not sure if it was repaired at one time or what, but with a screwdriver and hammer, I couldn't find any weak spots, passed the beat on it test. The police department removed the roof lights, and just filled the holes with silicone so that will need fixed anyways. The roof is plastidiped white now, and will probably be painted in the spring. 

I shot some fluid film between the outer and inner roof skins from the inside, which was exposed because of the lack of headliner or interior trim in general. Should be okay.

Good to know about the sending units, thanks!

I'm not sure if I'm going to try to repair the grille or just get a cheap reproduction, so much to get to I haven't even thought of it yet.

Plans are to get the truck up to snuff mechanically, then get the interior put together, with new carpet etc this winter. Modern radio, and speakers, and some other comfort stuff like sound deadening.

In the spring, have the roof and tailgate color matched as best as possible just to make everything one kinda sorta color. Drive the piss out of it, and look for a nice 5.9 Magnum to build while I do so. I'm sure things will change but this is the plan for now.

George

As the owner of this thing:


I wholeheartedly approve of this thread. Nice score! These trucks are a ton of fun.

33x12.50 is the perfect size for these trucks.  We really screwed up when we put our 84 1 ton on 38s. Killed the fun.

Oh yeah more pictures!

So since the trucks finish appeared to be the finest sidewalk chalk, mixed with a hint of 10 years of barn dirt accumulation, the truck looked like pale green garbage. Not gonna work. I also feel that a good detail let's you really examine your new purchase and see stuff you didn't notice at first. 

Pale and grimy

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Literally used a scrub brush 

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Washed still dull and gross

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Fender polished (Meguiars 105/205) hmm might be onto something here!

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You can see how straight, yet dull everything was

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Now we're talking!

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All shined up and waxed!

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Baby likes it!

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Also replaced the tail light lenses, with some chinamen specials, actually not bad.

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Next installment is my oil pan drain plug drama, and trans service fun!

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Your truck is why I joined this forum! Lol!

Yes I agree, I'm not a huge tires person myself. I love to do a lot of driving around exploring and camping, and that would ruin my drivability. The tires on it now are like new so they'll stay a while. Plus the turbines are the perfect 80s wheel to me lol

Georges1991 said:

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Your truck is why I joined this forum! Lol!

 

Yes I agree, I'm not a huge tires person myself. I love to do a lot of driving around exploring and camping, and that would ruin my drivability. The tires on it now are like new so they'll stay a while. Plus the turbines are the perfect 80s wheel to me lol

Ha, that's awesome! Strangely, for a bunch of guys who build weird homemade stuff and Miatas, we seem to love old trucks here. We have a lot of good resources here for old Mopar truck knowledge (like Cooter!) so post away!

I plan on putting bigger tires on mine at some point as well; I'm thinking some 32's would do the trick. And turbine wheels are the coolest. My truck has the older 5x4.5 bolt pattern, otherwise a set of those would already be on mine.

I had a chance to snag a '93 W150 with a 12V 5.9 Cummins in it, and still regret not doing so. The need for a crew cab prevailed over a single cab/ext. cab truck.

These 1st gen Rams and the 4th/5th Gens are the best looking ones of the bunch. Never got into the 2nd gen (they're horrendously overpriced for what they are, anyway) and the 3rd gen looked bad and was even worse after the facelift with those larger bug-eye headlights!

With a Wrangler and Durango in the fleet, I'm definitely a Mopar fan myself.

Your CB looks like the exact same Uniden unit I have in the Wrangler.

Azryael said:

I had a chance to snag a '93 W150 with a 12V 5.9 Cummins in it, and still regret not doing so. The need for a crew cab prevailed over a single cab/ext. cab truck.

Must have been swapped.   Hopefully with better axles, as well. 

Cooter said:

Azryael said:

I had a chance to snag a '93 W150 with a 12V 5.9 Cummins in it, and still regret not doing so. The need for a crew cab prevailed over a single cab/ext. cab truck.

Must have been swapped.   Hopefully with better axles, as well. 

Oops, it was a W250, you are right.

Thanks guys,

The CB is a "Midland" that is probably older than the truck, lol. It does work though! Took it out for now because the wiring was uhhh, interesting? 

I have no turn signals, but the indicator lights stay on dim on the instrument cluster, which makes me assume a ground issue, gonna read the FSM and trace some wiring and see whats up. 

Plates were very cheap went with the "EA" Expanded Antique that allows driving from April to Nov. at a HUGE savings over our regular Illinois plates, and as this truck wont see winter, that was fine with me.

Tony: I hear you there lol, I've owned just about everything from the 50's to now, domestic and foreign, if it has wheels and and engine, im in!

Also I owned a 2nd Gen, 1998 Laramie SLT, 360-4WD, Arizona truck. Absolutely mint, got it for 3500, in 2011. Sold it in 14 for 7200. Even the gassers, if clean, have shot up to stupid prices. The Cummins trucks, forget about it, people are insane

some of my recent first gen love! Your truck is pretty sweet!

The Ramcharger never seems to have done as well as the Blazer or the Bronco, which is an absolute shame.

I like all three, though, and would love to have one of each some day.

Gotta love green!

I really like that green on that truck!

A while back I hit the yard again and found a 89 D150, that donated it's rear slider, and a nifty storage cubby.

Also got a woodgrain bezel I'm not sure about using yet from an 87 (?) Ramcharger

My little helper approves!

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Guess we were in Australia for the last pic lol

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Did plugs and coil, running much better. 2 of the plugs were cracked. 

Also found someone's long lost 10mm! Lol

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Some underside shots of the trucks general condition.

Did valve cover gaskets the other night, had a little bit of time. They were heaving oil onto the manifolds and sitting still with the truck running was hazardous to ones health in less than 2 minutes.

I also attempted to clean up the Valve covers themselves, but they're pretty toasted, looks better, but makes everything else look much worse lol.

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I'd like to get started on replacing the ball joints, tie rod ends, drag link, etc. But after 3 cross midwest moves, I'm discovering a severe lack of tools. Oh well, I'll try my best. 

George

I can certainly see the changes made from the LA 318 that went into the Magnum 360 (and the 318). Particularly the way the rockers are secured; the rockers seem unchanged in terms of shape:

Also a huge difference in the number of bolts to secure the valve covers. 10 vs 5!

Still stupid simple to work on.

I took care of my headgaskets recently after a huge overheating issue and found the heads to have warped; consequently, the truck will still occasionally overheat, even after E-fan conversion and new radiator, water pump, t-stat, and radiator cap.

I'm leaning toward the autobox causing the overheating, as the overheating only seems to really manifest when driven hard.

In reply to Azryael :

The Magnum engines were really one of several unsung benefits from Chrysler buying out AMC.  The valvetrain is based on the AMC V8 design, and oils through the pushrods instead of through rockershaft pedestals.  

Cooter said:

In reply to Azryael :

The Magnum engines were really one of several unsung benefits from Chrysler buying out AMC.  The valvetrain is based on the AMC V8 design, and oils through the pushrods instead of through rockershaft pedestals.  

 

Yeah, I love my D with the 5.9, just wish I could lick that overheating issue. I'm planning on tossing in a NV4500 to rid myself of the automatic in it, but right now I've been letting my dad use that truck as his daily driver for the last few years (one of the reasons why the initial overheating occurred anyway due to his lack of knowledge and ability to maintain a vehicle) so I'm trying to get him to get his own.

Over the course of considering motors to swap into my Mercedes, I often though of a 5.2 or another 5.9, with some work done to get a TKO500 on it, would likely work nicely in a lighter-weight sedan.